"An army marches on its stomach" is generally credited to Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Siege of Ueda in 1600 is a good example of an effective castle defense. Sanada Masayuki held off Tokugawa Hidetada's army of 38,000 with only 2,000 soldiers. Hidetada abandoned the siege in order to join his father at the Battle of Sekigahara, though the fighting was over by the time he arrived. By convincing several of the opposing generals to sit out the fight or switch sides, Tokugawa Ieyasu prevailed without his son's army.
After Sekigahara, Masayuki did not attempt to engage the combined armies of the Tokugawa and was exiled to Kudoyama.
The Siege of Hara Castle during the Shimabara Rebellion pitted approximately 200,000 soldiers against 40,000 Roman Catholics, peasants, and ronin. It still took the Tokugawa shogunate four months to overrun the castle.
As Kouryou points out, bad intel can give an underdog an edge. In the Battle off Samar, the small Taffy 3 group of escort carriers and destroyers held off the entire Japanese Center Force (including the Yamato) with bluff and bravado. They were able to fight to a draw because Admiral Kurita misidentified the escorts as fleet carriers. Believing he was facing Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet, he withdrew on the verge of winning the engagement.
Thanks a lot!
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